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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210359">The Stars that Divide Us</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltahalo241/pseuds/deltahalo241'>deltahalo241</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), Star Wars - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cadets, Poor Kyle, They're Stormtroopers, Training</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:42:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,809</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210359</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltahalo241/pseuds/deltahalo241</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Catra and Adora are cadets training to become Stormtroopers</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adora &amp; Catra (She-Ra), Light Adora/Catra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Stars that Divide Us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adora’s eyes slowly blinked open as a sharp ringing sounded throughout the barracks. It was still early morning, but years of living at the Imperial Academy had trained her to wake up before the sun had even risen in the sky. <br/>Grabbing her rucksack, she walked to the changing rooms, shaking the last of the sleep from her mind. Once there, she ran through her regular morning routine of cleaning her teeth, showering and getting dressed in her Imperial fatigues.<br/>As she stepped out of the changing room, she bumped into someone. A Zygerrian girl named Catra. She was Adora’s best friend and sister, the two of them being adopted by a woman named Shadow-weaver after they had both lost their family’s in the Clone Wars. She often wondered why Shadow-weaver never told them her first name, but never dwelled on it for too long.</p><p>“Hey Adora” came Catra’s voice, breaking Adora out of her reverie “You ready? I can’t believe we’re finally graduating! Can you believe it! You and me, Stormtroopers! I can’t wait for the end of the week!”<br/>Adora smiled back at Catra “Well I’ll be a Stormtrooper at least!” she teased “You however barely passed the written test last week! Maybe they’ll place you in the Army!” Catra growled at the insult before a laugh escaped her throat.<br/>“Yeah right! My talents would be wasted in the Army! You know it and so do the instructors!” Catra barked back at Adora, before they both broke down into fits of giggles. “C’mon” she said “Breakfast won’t last forever and I don’t want to miss it again because you decided to take too long getting ready”</p><p>“Well you didn’t have to wait for me yesterday! Or the day before that, or the day before that…” Adora trailed off as they walked down the metallic halls of the Academy. Adora’s eyes flicked to the walls, Imperial recruitment advertisements lined them and Adora found herself drawn to the images of the Stormtroopers in their blazing white armour standing to attention, helping people in danger. The Clonetroopers of the Republic had rescued her when she had lost everyone and everything she cared about to the Separatists and soon she was going to be standing amongst them! Well technically not amongst them, the Empire had long since abandoned cloning to create soldiers and most of the old Clones found their places as instructors for the Empire but none the less! She was finally going to be out there herself! A force for good in the Galaxy!</p><p>They arrived in the canteen and quickly grabbed some nutrient blocks before heading over to the rest of their squad and taking a seat. Lonnie and Rogelio were butting heads over some small disagreement, it was amusing seeing Lonnie, a regular human trying to make a stand against her much larger Trandoshian squad-mate. Meanwhile Kyle was stuck between the two of them, desperately trying to calm them down. The group started conversing with one another whilst eating. Adora smiled, this was perfect. She wanted these days to continue forever.</p><p>As they walked down the hall to the training grounds, Catra turned to her “What do you think we’ll be learning about today?” asked Catra. Adora thought about it for a moment, they had been in the Academy for several years and had learned how to handle most weapons in the Imperial arsenal, she couldn’t really think of much else they had yet to learn. Perhaps today would be spent going over what they had learned previously in order to get them prepared for the exam. Either way, Adora could only shrug in response to Catra’s question.</p><p>“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see” she said “Though whatever it is, I’ll bet twenty credits that I beat you, again” a cruel smirk appeared on Catra’s face, which briefly made Adora wonder if perhaps she’d made a mistake challenging her, she knew how competitive Catra could get.</p><p>“You’re on” responded Catra “But don’t be surprised when I wipe the floor with you! That twenty credits is as good as mine!” Adora laughed in response as the door to the training ground opened. They walked inside, to be greeted by their instructor, a Clone by the name of Roughneck.</p><p>“Attention!” he shouted at the group, with practiced speed, their hands shot up to their sides.</p><p>“Hail the Empire!” they responded. It was almost reflex by this point. They waited a few moments as Roughneck looked them up and down, before giving them a satisfied smirk and nodding his head.</p><p>“At ease” he said moving up the row before turning and walking back to the centre of the room. “Now, as you’re aware, you’ll be graduating soon” he said “When you wear the uniform of an Imperial Stormtrooper, you represent the Empire! You represent the Emperor himself! That means you treat that armour with the highest respect! As if it were your own superior officer!” Adora felt like rolling her eyes at the speech, he’d given it a thousand times before and she practically knew it by heart at this point. “As a Stormtrooper you will have to conduct yourself with the highest discipline! You will bring neither shame nor pity to our glorious Stormtrooper corps! You will fight with honour and conviction and you will never ever surrender!” He finished his speech, taking a moment to take a breath “That being said, I know you have all been working hard these past few years and as such, I’ve arranged a small reward for you”</p><p>Slowly the panels on the wall mounted weapon rack pulled back, revealing several metal staffs. Adora gave a quizzical look at the Roughneck, who smiled before grabbing one off of the wall and pressing a switch on the side of the polearm. Immediately both ends of the staff lit up, crackling with electricity. “This” said Roughneck, twirling the staff in his hands “Is an Electrostaff, they were the choice of weapon for General Grevious’ personal bodyguards during the Clone Wars and currently they are used by Imperial bodyguards in the defence of Emperor Palpatine. I had to call in a few favours to get them greenlit for your use today, but I’m sure you’ll prove that it was worth it. Usually, these staffs are highly deadly. Just a few strikes could easily kill you. However, for the purpose of this lesson, the intensity of the staff’s electric current has been reduced. Now they’ll only knock you out for a few minutes”</p><p>For some reason, the instructor’s description of the device filled Adora with a strange sense of dread. These things could still knock a person out in a single strike with their current reduced? And they were going to be expected to spar one another with them? Adora didn’t want to hurt any of her team-mates, she still felt bad about stunning Kyle back when they were learning about the stun settings on blasters.</p><p>Roughneck grabbed more of the electrostaffs from the case and handed them out to the group “Lonnie, you’ll be facing Rogelio. Adora, you and Catra will face one another and Kyle, since we have an odd number of cadets, you’ll be sparring with me”<br/>Kyle gulped as the instructor pulled him away, Lonnie and Rogelio found a quiet corner of the arena to spar in, leaving Catra and Adora to face off against one another. Adora pressed the activation switch on the side of the staff and flinched as electricity began arcing out from the ends of the staff. The arena around her was bathed in a purple light which cast unnerving shadows on Catra’s face. </p><p>“What’s wrong, Adora?” said Catra “Worried you’re gonna hurt me? I’m not some weak little princess you know!” she lit up her own electrostaff and got in a combat stance. Adora smiled in response before charging in, she took a swing a Catra who ducked under the attack. Catra responded by thrusting her staff outwards towards Adora’s chest but Adora ducked to the side before she could land a hit. Spinning to the side, Adora brought her staff back around for another swing but Catra jumped up and blocked the strike however this gave Adora the opening she wanted, she pushed against Catra’s staff, knocking the girl off balance; Catra tried to regain her footing but Adora followed up with a kick to the chest. Catra threw her arms out to try and stop herself from falling over and Adora swung her staff against Catra’s. There was a shrill shriek as the electric nodes on the two staffs collided and Catra found herself losing her grip on the staff, it fell to the floor and de-activated it. She made a half-hearted attempt to grab it before turning back to face Adora only to be greeted by the metal centre of the staff as it hit her in the face, knocking her onto the ground.</p><p>“Good! Good!” came Roughneck’s voice as he walked over from an unconscious Kyle. Adora looked over to Lonnie and Rogelio and saw both of them slumped over where they had been fighting, clearly, they had matched each other in skill. “That was a fantastic display of skill, Adora” he said “All you have to do now is confirm the kill”</p><p>“… What?” responded Adora “I don’t understand, I’ve defeated Catra, she’s no longer a threat why do I need to strike her?” She looked down on the Zygerrian girl who was shrinking away from the arcing electricity of the staff. Catra looked up at her, eyes begging her not to. Adora hesitated, she had used the stun mode on her blaster against her team-mates in training before, but this was an entirely different beast. The blasters stun setting was relatively painful and quick to knock someone out. However Adora could tell that not only would the electrostaff take longer to knock Catra out, but that she would also be able to feel every second of it.</p><p>Roughneck turned to Adora “You’re taking too long, if this were a real combat scenario you would have been ambushed and killed or captured long ago.” Adora faced the man, his facial expression sent shivers down her spine. It was almost like he was relishing the situation, like hurting Catra was something he had been wanting to do for a long time. “If you don’t do it” came Roughneck’s voice “I’ll have to fail you for the class, that’ll severely limit your options for specialization, and you won’t be able to become an officer” Adora froze at that. She had been working hard for years to attain her dream and she was right on the edge of getting it… Catra would forgive her later, wouldn’t she? Closing her eyes, she brought the staff down on Catra and tried to block out her screams.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So yeah this was something I thought up one day after reading some other stories. I originally envisioned it as a one-shot, and there's a good chance it'll stay that way. I do have ideas for where I could take the story in the future and I have left the ending open for a continuation, but don't be surprised if this is it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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